NASA wants to build a floating city above the clouds of Venus. Should we be going to Venus instead of Mars?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 The Earth might not be here forever.
00:07 A huge solar flare,
00:09 an asteroid impact,
00:10 or a local gamma-ray burst,
00:12 anything could wipe us out for good.
00:16 If we're looking for someplace to escape to,
00:18 there is one planet in our Solar System
00:21 that's somewhat similar to Earth,
00:24 though we don't know much about it.
00:27 No, it's not Mars.
00:29 It's Venus.
00:31 Not only are Earth and Venus about the same size,
00:35 they both have identical interiors
00:37 with partially liquid cores,
00:39 mantles, and crusts.
00:42 Yet Venus happens to be the most hostile
00:45 terrestrial planet in the Solar System.
00:48 But what if I told you
00:50 that you could explore this hot planet
00:52 without ever setting foot on it?
00:55 This is WHAT IF,
00:58 and here's what would happen
00:59 if we built cloud cities on Venus.
01:03 Venus isn't a place you'd want to land on.
01:09 Thanks to its dense atmosphere
01:11 and turtle-like rotation,
01:13 the surface temperature of Venus
01:14 stays at 462 °C (1,000 °F).
01:18 The planet's atmospheric pressure
01:20 is 92 times greater than Earth's.
01:24 Because of such high pressure,
01:25 anything entering the atmosphere of Venus
01:28 gets immediately crushed
01:29 before it reaches the planet's volcanic surface.
01:33 With such extreme atmospheric conditions,
01:36 it's too dangerous to attempt a manned landing on Venus.
01:39 But we wouldn't need to go down there.
01:44 Above the dense layer of clouds,
01:46 Venus isn't that bad.
01:49 The atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth's,
01:52 the gravity is slightly lower,
01:54 and the temperature reaches 75 °C (1,000 °F).
01:57 Although that's a little hot,
02:00 it's still workable.
02:02 Now, how would we get there?
02:05 Well, we'd need to start small.
02:08 According to NASA's plan for exploring Venus,
02:11 we'd send two spaceships to our destination.
02:15 Venus is the closest planet to Earth.
02:18 That's why it would only take 100 days
02:21 for the craft to arrive there.
02:24 One of the ships would be run by robots.
02:27 It would carry a special airship
02:29 that would eject into the atmosphere upon arrival.
02:34 This airship would start to inflate itself with helium.
02:37 And since helium is lighter than air,
02:40 the airship would float,
02:42 orbiting about 52 km (1,000 mi) above the planet.
02:47 The second spaceship would have a crew of two people.
02:51 It would link up with the airship orbiting Venus.
02:55 The crew would have 30 days
02:57 to make all the environmental assessments.
03:00 After that, they'd detach from the airship
03:03 and start making their way back to Earth.
03:06 The return trip would take about 300 days
03:09 due to the Sun's strong gravitational pull.
03:13 But even with that,
03:14 the complete mission wouldn't take longer than 450 days.
03:20 After analyzing the information from the first mission,
03:23 we'd begin to plan our next trip to Venus.
03:26 But this time, we'd stay there longer.
03:29 The next crew would have a year
03:31 to study the planet and its atmosphere.
03:34 One of the things they'd be looking for on Venus
03:36 would be life.
03:38 Scientists think that because microbes on Earth
03:42 can thrive in acidic conditions surrounded by sulfur,
03:46 there could be life found in the Venusian atmosphere.
03:52 After the end of the second mission,
03:54 we would start preparing to stay on Venus permanently.
03:58 We would begin building cloud cities,
04:00 where future generations of humans would live,
04:03 and hopefully continue to explore space
04:06 and the origins of life in it.
04:09 They might even solve the pressure problem.
04:13 From there, they would terraform the planet
04:15 and settle down on the once-hostile Venusian surface.
04:20 But that's a story for another WHAT IF.
04:24 ♪ ♪
04:27 (dramatic music)
04:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]